OTgirl
Oct 27, 2015
Graduate / Figure Skating to help me achieve OT goals --> OTCAS entrance essay [2]
Help, a word that can be used both as a verb and a noun both encompassing what I would like to be to my community as an Occupational Therapist. Although I hope to do it in an entirely unique way, taking my passion for helping others and merging it with my passion for figure skating.
In the spring of my junior year I took Alternative Healing Modalities. A class that I believed would be an easy major elective, something to pad my gpa, give me an easy A. However after the first lecture I knew I was wrong, the professor challenged us to use other healing modalities in class and think of others that could be used. While I knew I wanted to become an Occupational Therapist I did not give much thought into it other than the simple fact of I want to help people and I liked Occupational Therapy. Once in this class I realized all the different ways I could do just that, help people. We were given the assignment to research and present an alternative form of therapy to the class. I chose to go with something that I had a passion for for the reason that I thought it would just be easy.
I choose to look into the alternative healing benefits of Ice Skating, something I have been doing my whole life, something that I teach to children when I am home on breaks. I soon realized that this could be so much more. Skating is what makes me happy and teaching it gives me so much happiness and joy, when I was assigned a therapeutic intervention class this past summer it was fate. I want to become an Occupational Therapist to help children with special needs find the same joy in skating as I did as a child and still do today as an adult. Through teaching this class I saw the theories and modalities that I had researched and learned in class take life, applying them each week to my class.
Figure Skating is a unique sport, not only do you compete against others you are also competing against yourself, trying to constantly beat your own personal accomplishments. It not only requires physical strength but mental as well. Growing up figure skating I learned perseverance, determination and a new approach at life, learning that failure is not just simply failure it is a learning experience. The skills I learned on the ice translated to my everyday life at Sacred Heart University, I was driven and focused on my goals excelling in my classes and extracurricular activities.
Using skating and the knowledge I will gain from a degree in Occupational Therapy I hope to help individuals heal and become stronger in a unique and fun way. Often times doing the same therapies repeatedly will discourage an individual's drive to succeed because they are bored, introducing skating as a therapy will help keep things interesting and patients engaged wanting to get better. Hopefully even continuing therapy to maintain their strengths and function.
As an Occupational Therapist I will be able to combine what I am most passionate about, and enjoy what I do during my life.
Help, a word that can be used both as a verb and a noun both encompassing what I would like to be to my community as an Occupational Therapist. Although I hope to do it in an entirely unique way, taking my passion for helping others and merging it with my passion for figure skating.
In the spring of my junior year I took Alternative Healing Modalities. A class that I believed would be an easy major elective, something to pad my gpa, give me an easy A. However after the first lecture I knew I was wrong, the professor challenged us to use other healing modalities in class and think of others that could be used. While I knew I wanted to become an Occupational Therapist I did not give much thought into it other than the simple fact of I want to help people and I liked Occupational Therapy. Once in this class I realized all the different ways I could do just that, help people. We were given the assignment to research and present an alternative form of therapy to the class. I chose to go with something that I had a passion for for the reason that I thought it would just be easy.
I choose to look into the alternative healing benefits of Ice Skating, something I have been doing my whole life, something that I teach to children when I am home on breaks. I soon realized that this could be so much more. Skating is what makes me happy and teaching it gives me so much happiness and joy, when I was assigned a therapeutic intervention class this past summer it was fate. I want to become an Occupational Therapist to help children with special needs find the same joy in skating as I did as a child and still do today as an adult. Through teaching this class I saw the theories and modalities that I had researched and learned in class take life, applying them each week to my class.
Figure Skating is a unique sport, not only do you compete against others you are also competing against yourself, trying to constantly beat your own personal accomplishments. It not only requires physical strength but mental as well. Growing up figure skating I learned perseverance, determination and a new approach at life, learning that failure is not just simply failure it is a learning experience. The skills I learned on the ice translated to my everyday life at Sacred Heart University, I was driven and focused on my goals excelling in my classes and extracurricular activities.
Using skating and the knowledge I will gain from a degree in Occupational Therapy I hope to help individuals heal and become stronger in a unique and fun way. Often times doing the same therapies repeatedly will discourage an individual's drive to succeed because they are bored, introducing skating as a therapy will help keep things interesting and patients engaged wanting to get better. Hopefully even continuing therapy to maintain their strengths and function.
As an Occupational Therapist I will be able to combine what I am most passionate about, and enjoy what I do during my life.